Fuse for shrapnel and other shells.



A. J. SAYGERS & J. F. GEORGE. FUSE FOR SHRAPNEL AND OTHER SHELLS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19, 1916.

Patented Aug UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

ANDREW J. SAYGERS AND JOHN F. GEORGE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

FUSE FOR SI-IRAPNEL AND OTHER SHELLS.

Application filed October 19, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ANDREW J. SAY- GERS and JOHN F. GEORGE, citizens of the United States, and residents of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, and State 0 Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Fuses for Shrapnel and other Shells, of which the following is a specification.

The object of our invention is to provide an automatic means within a time fuse for explosive ordnance shells used in warfare, to insure the normally inactive percussion firing pin (before the shell is fired) assum-' ing a new and locked position which shall insure the explosion of the shell when it strikes.

Heretofore, it has been customary to provide shrapnel shells with time fuses intended to cause them to burst in mid-air after traveling definite distances; and it has been further the practice to provide such time fuses with detonating or percussion means which will, upon percussion clue to the shell striking, insure a percussion cap to be exploded and through results obtained therefrom, cause the shell to burst. This latter operation is intended to take place in case the time fuse failed to explode the shell in mid-air as intended, and by such explosion through percussion, insure the immediate explosion of the shell upon striking. However, the means employed and intended for automatic exploding of the shell by percussion, is found to be unreliable in actual practice, carefully conducted experiments showing that as much as 25 per cent. of the projectiles intended to explode by percussion fail to so explode and thereby become inef fective for the purpose intended. The cause of this inefliciency has been found to be due to the fact that the percussion firing pin, after assuming a firing position under centrifugal action while the shell is traveling through the air, will be jarred out of firing position before exploding the percussion cap in case the shell strikes to one side of its point while in certain phases of its rotation about its longitudinal axis, as will be more fully explained hereinafter.

It is therefore the special object of our in vention to provide the percussion mechanism of a time or other fuse for ordnance shells with an automatic lockin g means for locking the percussion firing pin in firing position once it assumes such position in the flight of Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. '7, 1917.

Serial No. 126,470.

the projectile, and thereby insuring the explosion of every shell immediately upon striking.

With these and other objects, hereinafter noted, in view, our invention consists in certain instrumentalities in organized relation and cooperative association, whereby the desired objects are attained, all of which will be more fully understood from the following description and the recital of the invention as defined in the claims.

Our invention will be better understood by reference to the drawings, in which Figure 1 is a sectional view through the axis of a time fuse designed for an ordnance shell and embodying our invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the percussion plunger and attached parts; Fig. 3 is a similar cross section of the percussion plunger and attached parts taken at right angles to the section in Fig. 2; Fig. 4: is a cross sectional view taken on line wac of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrow points; and Fig. 5 is a section of a modification.

3 is the upper end of the shell, and 2 is the time fuse mechanism the same being screwed into position at the forward end of the shell to constitute the point thereof. The general construction of this time fuse is well known and forms no part of our invention, and while we have represented a cross sectional view through the time fuse we do not wish to be restricted in any manner by the details' there shown, as such details may be varied. These fuses are ordinarily employed in shrapnel shells and are designed to cause the shell to explode in the air over the trenches or other places where the enemy forces are congregated, the fuse structure for this purpose forming no direct portion of our invention. Fuses of this nature, however, are usually provided with secondary means for causing a bursting of the shell by direct impact with any obstacle and which is intended to take place should the shell fail to explode in mid-air, and it is to this particular part of the fuse to which ourinvention is especially related.

Arranged in the fuse body and adjacent to its inner portion is an annular chamber or magazine 9 which contains a charge of flash powder, and this magazine chamber 9 is closed at the bottom by a bottom closing screw plug 10, also provided with a chamber charged with flash powder 10 which is continuous with the powder 9. The bottom of the chamber in the closing screw plug 10 is sealed with a closing disk held in place by suitable washers. When this magazine charge 9 and 10 is exploded, the eifect is transmitted through the usual tube (not shown) which leads into the shell proper to cause the explosion therein which bursts the shell. The percussion means employed for exploding the charge when the shell impacts, consists of a percussion plunger 11 loosely guided in a cylindrical chamber 5 within the fuse body and in the axial line of the fuse and shell, said plunger being slotted as at 12, and fitting within said slotted portion is a pivoted percussion firing pin 13 having a firing point 15, said point adapted to engage a percussion cap 8 and through it fire the charge of flash powder. The firing pin body 18 is fulcrumed upon a pin 14 extending transversely through the percussion plunger, and the position of this fulcrum point on the body 13 is such that the weight of the body hanging upon said fulcrum pin will through gravity cause the'firing point 15 to be thrown down into the slot 12 in the plunger and out of firing position when the shell is stood upon its end with the point upward. When this position is assumed before assembling the parts, the firing pin is normally locked out of firing position by the two percussion safety pins 17 in .oyuide holes 18 which, under the influence of the coiled springs 19, are projected toward each other and into a transverse aperture 16 in the body of the firing pin, and in that way lock the pin in the position indicated in Fig. 1, so that during transportation or handling there shall be no possibility of the firing pin contacting with the percussion cap 8. When the parts are adjusted, a plunger housing 20 of annular form is pushed down over the plunger to hold the fulcrum pin 14 and the springs 19 in position, and said housing is then held in position upon the plunger body by a dowel pin 23. The plunger 11 is furthermore held away from the percussion cap 8 by means of two spring actuated plungers 21 which are guided in holes 21 and spring pressed outwardly by springs 22. These plungers 21 rest against one end of the plunger chamber 5 and hold the plunger 11 against the opposite end of the chamber formed by the bottom closing screw plug 10, as clearly indicated in Fig. 1. In this manner the plunger itself is held away from the percussion cap so that noordinary jarring will produce sufiicient impact thereon to cause an explosion. As will be seen,'the plug 10 fits tightly against the open end of the chamber 5 in the body 4 and thereby provides a closed chamber in which the percussion plunger is located. The opposite end of this chamber is recessed as at 6, and

into this recess is screwed the percussion primer 7 in which is located the percussion cap. The details of the percussion primer are not material to our invention, and it will therefore not be necessary to describe it more particularly than-is here given.

' The devices thus far described are those which have heretofore been in use, and the percussion plunger and the firing pin are intended to operate in the following man ner: When the shell is fired from the gun, it is given a rotary motion upon its axis during its flight, and this rotary motion causes the percussion safety pins 17 to fly outwardly against the action of the springs 19 under centrifugal force, and thus liberate the firing pin. W hen this is done, the centrifugal action upon the unbalanced firing pin body 13 causes it to fly outwardly about the fulcrum pin 14, the position assumed corresponding to what is indicated in Fig.

2. l/Vhen this position is assumed, the firing point 15 is thenprojecting beyond the forward surface of the plunger and in posi tion to explode the percussion cap 8 should the plunger 11 be driven forward. It will now be understood that should the shell strike upon its point, the impact willcause the inertia of the plunger 11 and its associated parts to be propelled forward through the chamber 5, overcoming the action of the springs 22, and cause the percussion cap to be exploded. This in turn explodes the flash charge in the magazine, and thereby the explosion of the shell proper.

If the shell strikes squarely upon its point, the forward movement of the plunger 11 will insure positive firing of the percussion cap, but should the shell strike to one side of the point, the resultant force of impact will have a tendency, under some conditions, to cause the firing pin to swing about its fulcrum with suflicient rapidity that when the plunger is driven forward the firing point 15 will not be extending in the axial i line of the shell and will be so displaced that the percussion cap will not'be struck and the shell will fail to explode. It is found that the tendency to thusinterfere withthe proper exploding action of the firing pin occurs with possible impact over an" area of about twenty-five degrees about the axial line, and this dependent upon the plane of oscillation of the firing pin within the fuse.

Our improvements are intended to prevent the displacement of the firing pin upon the plunger once it has assumed the firing position, that is, the position indicated in Fig. 2, and we will now describe our preferred means for accomplishing this result.-

In one face of the body 13 of the firing pin and at a distance from the fulcrum 14 thereof, we drill a small hole 24 to a depth which is suflicient to receive a small metallic ball 27, and opposite to this hole 24 when the firing pin is in firing position (Fig. we drill a corresponding hole 25 through the wall of the plunger 11 and opening into the face of the slotted portion 12, and this hole we plug up by a plug 26 to such an ex tent as to leave a small recess on the wall of the slot 12 sufficient to receive about onehalf of the metallic ball 27, all of which is clearly shown in Fig. 4. While these holes may be drilled more or less parallel to the fulcrum pin 14, we prefer to have them sutficiently oblique to the fulcrum to obtain somewhat of a radial action in the movement of the ball under centrifugal force when the shell is in flight. lVhen the firing pin is in the position shown in Fig. 1, the ball 27 will be wholly inclosed within the hole 24: of the firing pin body, and is retained therein by the smooth surface of the wall of the slot 12. \Vhen the shell is fired from the gun and is rotating upon its axis, the plunger 11 and its associated parts will also be rotated, as indicated by the arrow in Fig. l. The effect of this is not only to throw the locking plungers 17 out to release the firing pin, but also to throw the ball 27 outward into the pocket or recess 25 so that during such flight said ball acts as a positive lock to lock the firing pin in its firing position, and this locking action is automatic and will continue to be effective up to the time the shell impacts should it not be exploded in mid-air. Then the shell impacts, the firing pin being locked in firing position by the action of the ball 27, will positively insure the firing of the percustion cap 8 irrespective of what side of the point the shell may be struck at time of impact. In practice, the diameter of the ball 27 is one-sixteenth of an inch, and consequently its weight is very small, and therefore is not influenced under the impact with sufiicient rapidity to release the firing hammer before it has accomplished its intended purpose of firing the percussion cap. It will also be understood that this lock is automatic under centrifugal action only, and is always capable when the shell is at rest of being caused to assume a position which will release the firing pin. This is very important in assembling the parts, for while the testing of the percussion plunger and its firing pin may enable centrifugal action to operate the locking pins 17 this same centrifugal action causes the firing pin to assume a firing position, and it would not be feasible with these two required centrifugal actions to cause any centrifugal action to release the locking device 27 and consequently this device must be one which may be readily manipulated to unlock the firing pin when the parts are at rest, and thereby permit easy testing of the device before inserting it into the fuse body.

In the form of our invention shown in Fig. 5, the firing pin 13 has the pocket for the ball extending transversely through it and formed preferably by two slightly conical holes 21* meeting at the center, the flare extending toward the two faces of the pin body. The ball 27 may pass freely from one side of the body to the other through the conical holes or recesses and thereby more conveniently suit the rotation of the shell, be it right or left handed. The conical form of the hole parts 2% acts to induce the ball 27 to normally roll into locking position under all conditions. In place of bored holes 25 stopped with plugs, as in Fig. 4e, for cooperating with the ball as a locking means, we have shown in Fig. 5 simple recesses 25 milled in the walls of the slot 12, as being simpler and less expensive; but if desired, the plugged holes may be employed in lieu of the recesses. This construction of Fig. 5 provides a greater refinement of our invention, in that the firing pin may be locked from either side by the same locking ball. As the ball will roll under the action of gravity and is responsive to a slight jar, it is easy, in assembling and testing, at the bench, to cause the pin to be locked and unlocked at will, as in the other construction; but when the projectile is in flight, the firing pin is positively locked and remains locked until the bursting of the shell takes place.

It will be understood that the relative movement between the firing pin and percussion cap is essential when the former has been moved into and locked in firing position under centrifugal force during the flight of the shell; and while we have shown the most approved manner of adapt-- ing our invention to actual practice, we do not wish to restrict ourselves to the precise form and details. The essential feature of our invention resides in means to automatically lock the movable or pivoted firing pin in firing position, and we do not restrict ourselves to the means shown for bringing the firing pin and percussion cap together as it is manifest that these may be readily varied in design.

Aside from the broad principles embodied in the automatic operation of our improved locking device, the simplicity of the same is not to be overlooked, for aside from small cost for actual parts the facility of assemblage enables the provision of this most important element to the mechanism with a very nominal additional expense.

While we have disclosed the preferred form of our improvement, we do not in any manner intend to be restricted thereto, as the construction shown is only by way of example, it being within our invention to provide anyother suitable locking device operable by centrifugal action to automatically lock the firing pin in its firing position and preferably to release the sameautomatically upon bringing the parts to rest such as in assembling, and consequently we do not restrict ourselves to the details. The extreme minuteness of the locking mechanism enables the same to be effective without material friction, and consequently the device is exceedingly sensitive and quickly responsive to the centrifugal force put into effect during the flight of the projectile and remaining effective up to the time of the projectile being brought to rest, the device therefore being thoroughly reliable to accomplish the objects for which it is intended.

While we have described our invention in connection with the percussion firing device of a time fuse having a concussion firing device, it is manifest that as these two methods of firing the explosive charge of the shell are independent and only one operates at any one time, we do not limit our improvements to a time fuse as they may be employed in connection with percussion firing means used independently of the concussion and time fuse devices, though ordinarily they would be employed in association with such parts as are commonly required in shrapnel shells.

It will now be apparent that we have devised a novel and useful construction which embodies the features of advantage enumerated as desirable, and while we have in the present instance shown. and described the,

preferred embodiment thereof which has been found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that we do not restrict ourselves to the details, as the same are susceptible of modification in various particulars without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In an explosive shell, a percussion fuse therefor consisting of a percussion cap of suitable composition, combined with a percussion plunger, a pivoted firing pin carried by said plunger and arranged to swing into firing position under centrifugal action while the shell is in flight, a lock'to normally hold the firing pin out of firing position but release it under centrifugal action when the shell is in flight, and an automatic locking means normally out of action but movable under centrifugal action to lock the firing pin in firing positionwhen thrown to said position during flight of the shell.

2. In an explosive shell, a percussion fuse therefor consisting of a percussion cap of suitable composition, combined with a percussion plunger, a pivoted firing pin carried by said plunger and arranged to swing ger. o

3. In an explosive shell, a percussion fuse therefor consisting of a percussion cap of suitable composition, combined with a percussion plunger having a shallow looking recess, a pivoted firing pin carried by said plunger and arranged to swing into firing position under centrifugal action while the shell is in flight said firing pin having a lateral recess at a distance from its pivot, a lock to normally hold the firing pin out of firing position but release it under centrifugal action when the shell is in flight, and an automatic locking means normally out of action but adapted to lock the firin pin in firing position when thrown to said position during flight of the shell comprising a movable ball adapted to be normally inclosed in the lateral recess of the firing pin but under centrifugal force to move outwardly to become partly engaged in the shallow recess in the plunger and thereby lock the firing pin in firing position.

4. In a device of the character stated, the combination of a percussion cap, a plunger movable toward the cap but normally held away therefrom by yielding means, a pivoted firing pin hinged to the plunger and adapted to be thrown into firing position by m5 centrifugal action, and a locking part having a relative movement with respect to the pin and plunger whereby, under centrifugal action, the locking part locks the pin in firing position upon the plunger.

5. In a device of the character stated, the combination of a percussion cap, a plunger movable toward the cap but normally held away therefrom by yielding means, a pivoted firing pin hinged to the plunger and adapted to be thrown into firing position by centrifugal action, and a locking part freely movable under the action of gravity when the shell is not inflight but having a 7 relative movement with respect to the pin and plunger whereby, under centrifugal action, the locking part locks the pin in firing position upon the plunger. 7

6. In ordnance, a shell having both time and percussion fuses, the latter comprising a plunger, a firing pin hinged to the plunger and adapted to move into firing position under centrifugal force during the flight of the shell, and a centrifugally actuated locking device to lock the pin in operative position on the plunger to explode the shell when said pin is moved to firing position during the flight of the shell.

7 In a device of the character stated, the combination of a percussion cap, a plunger movable toward the cap but normally held away therefrom by yielding means, a pivoted firing pin hinged to the plunger and adapted to be thrown into firing position by centrifugal action, and a locking part having a relative movement with respect to the pin and plunger whereby, under centrifugal action, the locking part locks the pin in firing position upon the plunger, said looking device including a ball carried by the firing pin and movable under centrifugal force during the flight of the shell to engage the plunger to hold said pin and plunger in locked relation.

8. In a shell device of the character stated, a percussion element and a pivoted firing pin supported to permit a relative movement between them for firing the percussion element, combined with a locking means for normally locking the pin out of firing position but under centrifugal action releasing the firing pin to permit it to assume a firing position, and a second movable locking means carried wholly by and movable with the firing pin for locking the firing pin in firing position when automatically moved into said position during the flight of the shell.

9. In a shell device of the character stated, a percussion element and a pivoted firing pin supported to permit a relative movement between them for firing the percussion element, combined with a locking means for normally locking the pin out of firing position but under centrifugal action releasing the firing pin to permit it to assume a firing position, and a second locking means for locking the firing pin in firing position when automatically moved into said position during the flight of the shell, said second looking means comprising a movable part carried in an aperture formed in the firing pin whereby it is moved with the firing pin about its pivot but free to move laterally under centrifugal action, and a recess having a relatively fixed position with respect to the aXis of the firing pin which partly receives the movable locking part when the firing pin assumes a firing position.

10. In a shell device of the character stated, a percussion element and a pivoted firing pin supported to permit a relative movement between them for firing the percussion element, combined with a locking means for normally locking the pin out of firing position but under centrifugal action releasing the firing pin to permit it to as sume a firing position, and a second locking means for locking the firing pin in firing position when automatically moved into said position during the flight of the shell, said second locking means comprising a movable part carried in a transverse recess of the pivoted firing pin so as to be movable about the axis thereof and also free to move transversely under centrifugal action to either of the lateral faces of the firing pin, and recesses adjacent to each lateral face of the firing pin and having fixed relation with the axis of the pin into which the movable locking part is adapted to engage when the firing pin is in firing position.

In testimony of which invention, we hereunto set our hands.

ANDREW J. SAYGERS. JOHN F. GEORGE. Witnesses:

R. M. HUNTER, FLORENCE DEACON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of ratents, Washington, D. G. 

